The New D&D Book Is Called "Ghosts of Saltmarsh" [UPDATED!]

It seems those who suggested that the upcoming 'nautical themed' book was based on the old Saltmarsh trilogy were correct. Ghosts of Saltmarsh is the new book, with a release date of May 21st, 2019. UPDATED WITH NEW INFORMATION ON ALT COVER & RELEASE DATES!

Explore the waves above and the fathoms below in these watery adventures for the world’s greatest roleplaying game.

“D&D acolytes are everywhere...Tech workers from Silicon Valley to Brooklyn have long-running campaigns, and the showrunners and the novelist behind ‘Game of Thrones’ have all been Dungeon Masters.”—Neima Jahromi, The New Yorker

Ghosts of Saltmarsh brings classic adventures into fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. This adventure book combines some of the most popular classic adventures from the first edition of Dungeons & Dragons including the classic “U” series, plus some of the best nautical adventures from the history of Dungeon Magazine: Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh, Danger at Dunwater, Salvage Operation, Isle of the Abbey, The Final Enemy, Tammeraut’s Fate, The Styes.

• Ghosts of Salt Marsh includes a variety of seafaring adventures, enough to take characters from level 1 to level 12.

• This supplement introduces the port town of Saltmarsh, the perfect starting point for a nautical campaign.

• Each adventure can be played individually, inserted into your ongoing game or combined into a single epic nautical campaign.

• Dungeon Masters will find rules for ships and sea travel, deck plans for various vessels, an appendix with rules for new and classic monsters, and much more.

Updates! WotC has just announced the book. Full press release below, but a couple of key points:

There's an alternate cover (below)

Preferred stores and regular stores get it on the same date, instead of WPN stores getting it early

Sail the Seas in Dungeons & Dragons with Ghosts of Saltmarsh Adventure Releasing Everywhere May 21

Renton, WA – February 25, 2019 – Dungeons & Dragons is excited to announce a new adventure book called Ghosts of Saltmarsh, which takes classic sea-faring adventures and updates and expands upon them for use with D&D fifth edition. The book details the port town of Saltmarsh and the surrounding lands players can explore using their own ship and the vehicle mechanics included in the 256-page book. Unravel sinister secrets of the sea with Ghosts of Saltmarsh releasing in game stores, digitally and everywhere on May 21, 2019. An alternate art cover with a distinctive design and soft-touch finish is available exclusively in game stores on May 21.

“The Saltmarsh series consistently ranks as one of the most popular classic D&D adventures,” said Mike Mearls, franchise creative director of D&D. “With its ties to ocean-based adventuring, it was an obvious step to augment it with additional sea-based adventures and a robust set of rules for managing a nautical campaign.”

The book includes details on the port town of Saltmarsh, as well as plenty of adventure hooks for each chapter. Fans can play through the whole story in a seafaring campaign leading characters from level 1 through level 12, while Dungeon Masters can easily pull out sections to place in ongoing campaigns in any setting. The appendices cover mechanics for ship-to-ship combat, new magic items, monsters and more!

Ghosts of Saltmarsh will be available both in game stores and everywhere else on the same date – May 21st. Fans are encouraged to pick up the adventure in the way that’s most convenient for them, but there is an alternate art soft-touch cover that will only be available in game stores. The alternate cover image was created by N. C. Winters and features a snarling sahuagin.

For more information on Ghosts of Saltmarsh and all things D&D, please go to dungeonsanddragons.com and check out the breadth of live D&D programming and interviews available on twitch.tv/dnd. You can also listen to interviews involving Ghosts of Saltmarsh as well as D&D mechanics and lore on Dragon Talk, the official D&D podcast.

Ghosts of Saltmarsh combines some of the most popular classic adventures from the first edition of Dungeons & Dragons including the classic ‘U’ series, plus some of the best nautical adventures from the history of DungeonMagazine:

The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh

Danger at Dunwater

The Final Enemy

Salvage Operation

Isle of the Abbey

Tammeraut’s Fate

The Styes

All adventures have been faithfully adapted to the fifth edition rules of Dungeons & Dragons. Furthermore, this book includes details on the port town of Saltmarsh, as well as plenty of adventure hooks for each chapter. Play through the whole story in a seafaring campaign leading characters from level 1 through level 12, or Dungeon Masters can easily pull out sections to place in ongoing campaigns in any setting. The appendices also cover mechanics for ship-to-ship combat, new magic items, monsters, and more!

WHERE CAN I BUY IT?

Unravel sinister secrets of the sea with Ghosts of Saltmarsh releasing in game stores, digitally and everywhere on May 21, 2019. An alternate art cover with a distinctive design and soft-touch finish is available exclusively in game stores on May 21.

Explorer

Id be curious to see what the statistics look like for D&D through the years. For example how many units shipped per edition compared to how many peole are playing which edition today. I'm sure its impossible data to compile but I wonder if theres merit to D&D is bigger than ever when compared to inflation and population increase. No doubt its more accessible but bigger who knows?

I recall Mearls once answered this very question by saying that a few months of concentrated hype were the best way to keep people engaged and excited to buy each book sequentially. Also, plans change, best not to get tied down.

Adventurer

Adventurer

Can anyone shed any light on why WotC is so secretive as to what their releasing any given year for 5E? Editions past you knew what was coming well in advanced. Now they give us minimal bits and pieces for one product, and then announce something after the first is released with little detail. I dont see why they dont come out at the beginning of the year saying we are planning to release this?

1. Bleep happens. In the early days of 5e (damn, it feels weird to say that), someone got their hands on a solicitation meant for retailers that had an Adventurer's Handbook hardback in it, meant for concurrent release with Princes of the Apocalypse. That never materialized in that form - instead we got the Elemental Evil Player's Companion released as a free PDF with POD options on DM's Guild. When asked why it was cancelled, the devs said "That was never announced, and we can't cancel something we haven't announced." They've been distinctly more cagey about future releases since. Given the really late release date, my guess is that something has held up the release of this, and you can imagine what these boards would have looked like if we had been told about a March release and then been informed that no, it's going to be released in May instead.

2. Hype. Their marketing team has shown that it's hard to maintain interest in a future product for months upon months, so nowadays they announce product about three months in advance, with maybe a month or two of small teasers before that.

Legend

1. Bleep happens. In the early days of 5e (damn, it feels weird to say that), someone got their hands on a solicitation meant for retailers that had an Adventurer's Handbook hardback in it, meant for concurrent release with Princes of the Apocalypse. That never materialized in that form - instead we got the Elemental Evil Player's Companion released as a free PDF with POD options on DM's Guild. When asked why it was cancelled, the devs said "That was never announced, and we can't cancel something we haven't announced." They've been distinctly more cagey about future releases since. Given the really late release date, my guess is that something has held up the release of this, and you can imagine what these boards would have looked like if we had been told about a March release and then been informed that no, it's going to be released in May instead.

2. Hype. Their marketing team has shown that it's hard to maintain interest in a future product for months upon months, so nowadays they announce product about three months in advance, with maybe a month or two of small teasers before that.

The level of vitriol that gets tossed WotC's way if they are anything but 100% accurate with every prediction is mind blowing. Every missed deadline would be yet more people crowing from the rooftops that 5e is DOOOOMMMED.

Explorer

I’m not a big fan of monsters that come out in the 3rd or 4th book of monster cause like in pathfinder and even older editions of D&D, these monsters are less used, fringe and weren’t popular or good enough to make it into the earlier books. I am glad that WoTC is doing them like this though and have them tied to the adventure/book, handful of monsters, naval stuff...mix of everything instead of a 100% book of monsters in a bestiary that only has 5% that I’ll use.....new format works for me as a DM and as an enthusiast!

Explorer

I’m not a big fan of monsters that come out in the 3rd or 4th book of monster cause like in pathfinder and even older editions of D&D, these monsters are less used, fringe and weren’t popular or good enough to make it into the earlier books. I am glad that WoTC is doing them like this though and have them tied to the adventure/book, handful of monsters, naval stuff...mix of everything instead of a 100% book of monsters in a bestiary that only has 5% that I’ll use.....new format works for me as a DM and as an enthusiast!

I really liked the loose leaf 2E Monstrous Compendiums. I still have all of them in one huge binder. I really miss some of the detail thats since been omitted from 3E-5E, especially the ecology & habitat entries. The Spelljammer MC had some cool monsters, the one that acted like Alien from the movie was great. Killed more than a few PCs with that one. Think I even took out a whole party.

Its all the Drows fault. But honestly I dont see what edition you are playing has any bearing on what setting you play your campaign in. If you like Greyhawk, Mystara, Birthright or Darksun, chances are you have a some old source material. Doesnt take much to do some conversion or ad hoc on the fly. Im currently running an Undermountain campaign and after reading about 3 rooms from the new DotMM, I stopped reading and just made up my own adventure as I go along. Heck except for character advancement I dont even know what edition were playing anymore, nor do I care or bother to look up rules. I just make sure Im fair and keep the game moving along. My players dont seem to mind.

That's what happens when you place practically every video game in FR. And I saw more FR novels than nearly any other setting, except maybe Dragonlance. And that setting went downhill after Dragons of Summer Flame.
[MENTION=6801060]Demetrios1453[/MENTION] and [MENTION=6780330]Parmandur[/MENTION] : I didn't read any of the monster lore because as I stated, they were useless to me as I have my own lore for my own setting. And I figured they were FR focused since EVERY other book released has been (adventures minus Strahd, SCAG). Giving them names of Greyhawk characters really means nothing. So I made a mistake, but like I said, I didn't read the lore because it's rather useless to me. It's good to know it isn't FR focused, though.

Explorer

I love that they are tapping into old Dungeon adventures. That magazine was one of the highlights of the 3e era to me. There are so many great adventures to be found in it's pages. The Styes is a particularly awesome choice.

Explorer

To me thats comparing different media, a TTRPG vs. a video game vs. a movie or novel isnt the same. For the most part a movie, novel or video game are linear, you have no control where it goes or how it ends, (unless its the 80s clue movie or a choose your own adventure). With a TTRPG its a collective story, where you can control where its set, the story and the ending.

Explorer

To me thats comparing different media, a TTRPG vs. a video game vs. a movie or novel isnt the same. For the most part a movie, novel or video game are linear, you have no control where it goes or how it ends, (unless its the 80s clue movie or a choose your own adventure). With a TTRPG its a collective story, where you can control where its set, the story and the ending.

Adventurer

That's what happens when you place practically every video game in FR. And I saw more FR novels than nearly any other setting, except maybe Dragonlance. And that setting went downhill after Dragons of Summer Flame.

Certainly successful computer games and novels where what initially propelled FR past Greyhawk, but that raises additional questions: Why did SSI choose FR for the Gold Box games? Why was the breakthrough D&D novel (The Crystal Shard) set in FR?